[OS X Emacs] Tab & Formatting Magic In Settings - How To Stop It?

[Greg Fotiades]

Hey,

I apologize if this has been covered extensively before, I couldn't find
anywhere, and did explicitly make sure to check the FAQs.  I just downloaded
AquaEmacs recently and as far as an editor I love it - except for one thing
- the tabbing magic.  It's not easily changeable either, as there's a
GIGANTIC set of settings (more than VIM by a longshot, I'd say) and half of
which I can't determine their meaning nor when certain settings (especially
regarding tabs) intersect, which takes precedence (language vs editor
settings).

I want my tabs such as this:
- Tab key always inserts a tab (expanded to 3 spaces) - ALWAYS - even if it
doesn't "think" I want a tab there.
- When I hit enter, it goes to the same column this line started, ie. if I'm
col 12, I type a function, hit enter, I'd like to be at col 12 again, and if
I keep hitting enter, it keeps spacing to col 12.

The problems I'm experiencing are that
A)  Even though my tabs are set to 3 and it should be expanding them to
spaces (I like spaces, they're portable, tabs are not), every time I hit
tab, it only indents 2 spaces - I can't find the number "2" anywhere in the
"C" programming language part of the settings, either.  I don't know where
it's getting that from.
B)  I'm guessing this is a side effect of the above, but is there any way I
can make it STOP shifting things to where it "thinks" I want them.  I make
my case statements a certain way, I'd like the editor to respect that to
some degree - it doesn't - at all, it moves the line to where it thinks it
should be once I hit enter (for example if I'm at 12 col and typing a
function, I hit enter, and it slides back to 10 col for some reason once I
hit enter, and I have to move up a line and throw in two more spaces).

Also, I'd like these settings to be global - not just for C - I format my C,
C++, Java, hell, the allowances in some assembly languages for formatting in
my own ways and I'd like it not to force me to do other ones.  I'd like the
tab to give me 3 spaces, without it thinking about it, without it stopping
me, without it shifting another line to a particular tab stop.

I do really like aqua emacs so far, and I realize that these language
preferences (or whatever is controlling it) are trying to help me, but I
just don't want the formatting help - a tab (or equivalent) should be
entered when the tab key is pressed and it shouldn't go to the first column
when I hit enter - it should be wherever the whitespace ends on the previous
line which has text on it - I can handle hitting tab once if I make an "if"
statement or something.  I'd just like it to respect my formatting :(.

Also, is there any wiki or FAQ or anything that can help explain how the
settings are organized?  There's just so much stuff and it's hard to tell
what takes precedence over what.  It's hard to find information regarding
this because a lot of things just tell you to edit your .emacs file and
write lisp in there (what?) and there's so much junk to do with
tabs/formatting that it's hard to narrow in on a specific thing.

Thanks in advance, sorry if I sound bitchy, but I was loving the editor
until it started trying to do my formatting for me and ignore my tab
preferences - and yes, I did hit both "save for future buffers" and "set for
current buffer."

- Greg
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